Timeless classics from ageless A-listers
Pop Hollywood Vampires SSE Arena, Wembley
So legend has it, hidden away in the loft of the notorious Rainbow Bar and Grill on the Sunset Strip, Alice Cooper once ran his own all-night drinking club. John Lennon, Marc Bolan, Harry Nilsson, John Belushi and Keith Moon were among the regulars, included by virtue of their stamina; the bar staff nicknamed them the Hollywood Vampires.
In 2015, as one of the few left alive, the now-teetotal Cooper assembled his own supergroup under that banner, drafting in Aerosmith’s guitarist Joe Perry along with, rather strangely, Johnny Depp, to pay tribute to his departed friends and heroes (that same year releasing an album).
Along this theme, on Wednesday night, on the last UK date of their European tour, the band was backed by montages of dead rock and screen stars, while among their set list was My Dead Drunk Friends, a selfpenned shanty with chant-a-long lyrics that appeared in a pirate font on the big screens.
However, this track was one of only a few on the set list that weren’t cover versions.
Hollywood A-listers or not, Hollywood Vampires are essentially an arena-sized pub karaoke band, borrowing hits from the likes of Love, AC/DC and The Doors.
But, of course, there was poignancy in their choices. Touring bassist Chris Wyse gave a rasping performance of Motorhead’s Ace of Spades, as images of Lemmy loomed over him, while Depp’s gentle rendition of David Bowie’s Heroes, one of two numbers on which he took lead vocals, was lit up by a sea of mobile phones capturing the moment.
Despite his Hollywood status, Depp was far from the star attraction here – principally, he remained side of stage.
Depp is a competent guitarist, and certainly looks the part: at age 55, wearing a puffy white shirt, a black waistcoat and bandana with chains hanging from his neck and belt-hooks, he is ever more morphing into Keith Richards.
But, on stage rather than screen, exuberance and showmanship clearly do not come naturally to him – he never spoke to the Wembley crowd. When Cooper introduced each member of the seven-strong touring band during the show’s final minutes, he had to yank Depp out from his hiding place behind an amp.
However, while for Depp, Hollywood Vampires may be a chance to dip his toe into the rock star dream that he’s held on to since he was a teenager, for Cooper, it is clearly for fun.
And this really was his show. Swinging his black cane and snarling, the patriarch of glam rock introduced his 1971 breakout hit I’m Eighteen by declaring himself “a vampire that did not die”.
And after watching this septuagenarian closing the show with the bombastic School’s Out, you wonder if he really might just outlast us all.